Linc Energy execs charged with contaminating farmland

FIVE of Linc Energy's former executives have been charged with environmental offences over the contamination of prime farmland in the Darling Downs.

Former chief executive and company founder Peter Bond, who had already been hit with three charges back in September, was among the five executives of summonsed today by the Queensland Government, according to AAP.

Four other senior staffers were also summonsed in relation to the company's failed underground coal gasification site outside Chinchilla, which had been described by Environment Minister Stephen Miles as "the biggest pollution event probably in Queensland's history."

The new charges have been praised by Lock the Gate spokesman Drew Hutton.

The anti-CSG activist group congratulated the Queensland Government and Mr Miles for enacting its new Chain of Responsibility Laws.

"This is a big day for Queensland - finally, the executives who are likely responsible for one of the biggest contamination events in our history will be held accountable in the courts," he said.

"We congratulate Environment Minister Stephen Miles on putting in place these ground-breaking laws and taking action against those responsible for this far-reaching pollution event. He has shown very significant national leadership on this issue.

"Farmers in the Hopeland area near Chinchilla are now forced to live with the impacts of soil contamination from unsafe gases caused by underground coal gasification, and they will be relieved to hear that the executives involved are being held responsible."